Taxpayers may finance PCs for home-schoolers

TEA interpretation of law angers lawmakers

Published 5:30 am, Sunday, September 23, 2001

AUSTIN -- Some home-schooled students in Houston soon may be receiving thousands of dollars of computer equipment paid for by taxpayers.

The unusual arrangement is happening because of the Texas Education Agency's interpretation of a law allowing the state to waive attendance requirements for state funding. The attendance waiver is part of a law establishing a two-year pilot study of virtual schools.

But the lawmakers who wrote the bill have complained about TEA's decision to include in the pilot a school that will serve students who are taught at home by their parents. Home schools traditionally have been considered private schools and have received no state funding.

Nancy Trunk, head of TVCS, said the school is approved to serve 500 students and has so far enrolled about 300 in central and southeast Texas, including Houston and Austin.

The virtual charter school could receive $5,000 for each home-schooled student.

"This sounds like a scheme to make Texas taxpayers pay for vouchers to fund home schools," said Carolyn Boyle, coordinator of the Coalition for Public Schools, a group of 36 organizations that oppose private school vouchers. "This is a backdoor way to fund home schools and would be a new expense for Texas taxpayers."

An estimated 75,000 children are home-schooled in Texas, according to a Home Education Week proclamation issued earlier this year by Gov. Rick Perry.

Critics of TEA's decision to allow the Gateway Academy to participate in the pilot project include the senator and representative who wrote the bill setting up the pilot study of online learning. Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, the author of Senate Bill 975, said in a Sept. 5 letter to Education Commissioner Jim Nelson that legislative intent was to exclude charter schools from these distance learning projects.

"Under its current interpretation, TEA is violating the legislative intent of SB 975 and, in doing so, is thwarting the will of the 180 legislators who unanimously passed this bill," wrote Shapleigh, D-El Paso.

In a Sept. 11 letter, Nelson said he disagreed with Shapleigh's interpretation of the legislation.

"If we are to truly evaluate the capabilities, impact and financial accountability of virtual programs then we must include a wide variety of programming methods," Nelson wrote.

Rep. Scott Hochberg, the House sponsor of the bill, said the pilot project was designed to allow school districts to collect money based on average daily attendance for students who were taking online classes outside of a regular classroom setting.

Examples cited during legislative debate included secondary students who needed a specific advanced course or students who couldn't regularly attend classes because of a disability or special circumstances such as having families who traveled as migrant workers.

"This was not designed as a subsidy for anybody's commercial project, I can assure you of that," said Hochberg, D-Houston.

"This is a disguised subsidy to home-schoolers. If the Legislature confronted this issue head on, it couldn't pass," Hartman said.

Gregg Vanourek, vice president of K12's charter school division, said the virtual charter school brings private school students into the public education system.

"These children are no longer home-schoolers. They become public charter school students," Vanourek said.

Although the students will continue to be taught by parents at home, they will face requirements about curriculum and will be tested to make sure they are learning the standards established by TEA, Vanourek said. Teachers hired by K12 will work with parents and monitor the students' progress.

At an open house in Austin last month, K12 representatives told families they would receive at no charge on loan a computer, monitor and printer as well as software programs, written materials and items such as chalkboards, art kits, tambourines and videos.

One of the speakers was Melinda Wheatley, who was introduced as a board member of Gateway Academy and as K12's vice president for Texas. Wheatley told the audience that some people "in the upper echelons of Texas politics" helped to get the home-school program approved.

Debbie Graves Ratcliffe, a spokeswoman for the TEA, said the agency had not been contacted about the pilot program by Perry, a supporter of school choice. She said the commissioner also had not talked to Bennett or U.S. Education Secretary Rod Paige, a former member of K12's board of directors.

Wheatley referred questions to K12, which is based in McLean, Va.

She has since resigned as president of Gateway's board of trustees because her positions with both the school and K12 presented a conflict of interest, Krusee said.

Krusee said that the Gateway board may set up a separate board or subcommittee to deal with the virtual charter school.

Krusee said public education advocates should be supporting the program because it will make sure that home-schoolers meet education standards.

Ratcliffe said Gateway is the only program involved in the pilot that will serve students in the earliest grades. Ten school districts, including HISD, also are expected to participate in the virtual learning project.

Gaye Lang, project manager of HISD virtual schools, said the program will involve students in middle and high school. She said some students may access the online programs through school computers while others may work at home after school.

Lang said HISD is developing its own curriculum. She said she is not expecting any extra money from the state since the students already are enrolled in area schools.

Ratcliffe said Gateway will not be paid by TEA until it receives a waiver from the daily attendance requirements. Gateway's charter allows it to serve 1,170 students. It has about 700 enrolled in its regular charter school in southeast Houston.

The state has rated Gateway as low-performing based on student assessment test scores. Krusee also founded affiliated charter schools in San Antonio, Dallas and Midland. He said he is not paid for his work with the charter schools.

Texas is the third state where K12 would be running virtual charter schools. Its efforts in Colorado and Pennsylvania also have been controversial.